Samoan Community Research Articles

Some Reflections on Samoan Cultural Practice and Group Identity in Contemporary Wellington, New Zealand

The relationships between social and cultural transformation and identity change are subtle and complex. This paper reflects on trends in these relationships in the Samoan community in Wellington, New Zealand through an examination of the content of interviews about an important cultural practice (fa'alavelave). After discussing fa'alavelave and its importance to Samoan life four themes are presented that show how our informants perceive the interrelations between social change and cultural continuity. Although the body of data discussed does not provide a sufficient basis for speaking with any certainty about prevailing trends, it is a useful ingredient to a discussion of how we might proceed to gain a clearer understanding of the balance between the forces impinging upon Samoan identity in New Zealand.

Speaking about Cultural Difference and School Disadvantage. An Interview study of 'Samoan' Paraprofessionals in Designated Disadvantaged Secondary Schools in Australia

This paper uses Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic discourse to examine interview accounts of educational disadvantage provided by Samoan community members engaged as paraprofessionals in secondary schools in the Australian state of Queensland. While the interview participants were asked a range of questions for an Australian Research Council funded project on the construction of Australian identities through language and literacy practices, the data extracted in this paper focuses only on those accounts that referred explicitly to pedagogic discourses and practices. In these accounts the Samoan paraprofessionals attributed educational disadvantage to: (a) the arbitrary organisation of students, knowledge and spaces in schooling institutions, and (b) differences between school and Samoan institutions. The principles of power and control generating the unequal selection, organisation and distribution of school knowledge are discussed in the light of empirical research utilising Bernstein’s theoretical work on the social re/production of disadvantage in and through schooling discourses and practices.

Phonological and cultural innovations in the speech of Samoans in Southern California

Bilingualism is a concept that critically relies on and interacts with a variety of other theoretical constructs, including the notions of ”language”, ”speakers”, and ”community”. Subjecting these key notions to new empirical and theoretical challenges, this study struggles to invent a new language able to describe what we are learning to see without the faulty presuppositions of earlier labels. This is particularly difficult in the study of what is probably the most emblematic phenomenon of bilingualism, namely, code-switching. Starting from these considerations, this paper examines audio-visual recordings of spontaneous interactions collected during a three year project in a Samoan community in Southern California, with the goal of applying an anthropological approach to code-switching. The paper concentrates on three phenomena: (i) the routine adoption of kinship terms like Dad and Mom in Samoan discourse; (ii) the ”island-like” status of certain proper names which are not adapted to the Samoan phonological register called ”bad speech” spoken at home; (iii) the code-switching to Samoan words that do have an English equivalent and are associated with church activities.

Lipoprotein risk factors in a Western Samoan community

Lipoprotein risk factors in a Western Samoan community

Migration, Social Change, and Health: A Samoan Community in Urban California. CRAIG R. JANES

<i>Migration, Social Change, and Health: A Samoan Community in Urban California.</i> CRAIG R. JANES

Ethnicity and Class Structure in the Contemporary U.S. : Micro and Macro Perspectives

William Wilson pointed out in his book : The Declining Significance of Race, that studies of Blacks in the U.S. have placed too much emphasis on the micro perspective, and that the micro analysis loses its grip on reality when it has little reference to the macro social structure. Wilson's point is well taken, but my research leads me to believe that he has gone too far in discounting the importance of the micro perspective. The aim of my paper is to describe how the characteristics of racial and ethnic group relations in the contemporary U.S. society are rooted in the macro structure. My conclusions are based on my field study in the Samoan community in San Francisco 1990-92. The macro structure of contemporary American society is best characterized in socio-political terms as liberal pluralist system ; it is not a racist system ; it has a large degree of inequality. The lower class, excluded from resources as well as from the opportunity for upward mobility, seeks security by organizing into ethnic or racial groups. The lower class ethnicity is very different from that of middle class. It is based on the strategy of the “have-nots” who organize such resources as they have-fellowship, mutual trust- so that they can compete with the “haves”. In contrast, middle class ethnicity is individual ; it does not depend on group affiliation. This difference in life-style creates another source of conflict between the two classes. The lower class tend to fall into a hard-to-understand, sometimes even hostile way of life in the eyes of the middle class. This often gives the middle class a good reason for prejudice against the lower class. It is another aspect of Myrdal's “accumulation of discrimination” which makes upward mobility more difficult for the lower class.

: Migration, Social Change, and Health: A Samoan Community in Urban California . Craig R. Janes.

Medical Anthropology QuarterlyVolume 6, Issue 1 p. 93-94 Migration, Social Change, and Health: A Samoan Community in Urban California. Craig R. Janes. William W. Dressler, William W. Dressler Department of Behavioral and Community Medicine University of Alabama School of MedicineSearch for more papers by this author William W. Dressler, William W. Dressler Department of Behavioral and Community Medicine University of Alabama School of MedicineSearch for more papers by this author First published: March 1992 https://doi.org/10.1525/maq.1992.6.1.02a00130AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume6, Issue1March 1992Pages 93-94 RelatedInformation

Migration, Social Change, and Health: A Samoan Community in Urban California

Migration, Social Change, and Health: A Samoan Community in Urban California

Migration, social change, and health: a Samoan community in urban California

Migration, social change, and health: a Samoan community in urban California

Note

Pacific ViewpointVolume 31, Issue 1 p. 63-66 ArticleFree Access Note Transnational Corporations of Kin and the Mirab System: The Case of Tuvalu Doua Munro, Doua Munro Bond UniversitySearch for more papers by this author Doua Munro, Doua Munro Bond UniversitySearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 May 1990 https://doi.org/10.1111/apv.311004Citations: 13AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat References 1Bertram, Geoffrey, 1986. Sustainable Development in Pacific Micro-economies World Development 14(7): 809- 22 2Bertram, I. G. and Watters, R. F. 1985. The MIRAB Economy in SOuth Pacific Microstates Pacific Viewpoint 26(3): 497- 519 3Bertram, I. G. and Watters, R. F. 1986. The MIRAB Process: Earlier Analyses in Context Pacific Viewpoint 27(1): 47- 59 4Brady, I. A. 1970. Land Tenure Kinship and Community Structure: Strategies for Living in the Ellice Islands of Western Polynesia unpublished Ph D dissertation University of Oregon 5Chambers, Anne 1983 Exchange and Social Organization in Nanumea a Polynesian Atoll Society unpublished Ph D dissertation University of California Berkeley 6Chambers, Anne, 1984. Nanumea Atoll Economy: Social Change in Kiribati and Tuvalu no 6 Canberra: Development Studies Centre Australian National University 7Curson, P. H., 1979. Migration Remittances and Social Networks Among Cook Islanders Pacific Viewpoint 20(20): 185- 98 8Firth, Raymond, 1957. A Note on Descent Groups in Polynesia Man 1(2): 4- 8 9Geddes, W., H. Chambers, B. Sewell, R. Lawrence and R. Watters, 1982. Islands on the Line: Team Report. Atoll Economy: Social Change in Kiribati and Tuvalu no 1 Canberra: Development Studies Centre: Australian National University 10Macdonald, Barrie, 1982. Cinderellas of the Empire: Towards a History of Kiribati and Tuvalu Canberra: Australian National University Press 11Macpherson, Cluny, 1985. Public and Private Views of Home: will Western Samoan migrants return home Pacific Viewpoint 26(1): 242- 62 12Marcus, George, 1981. Power on the Extreme Periphery: The Perspective of Tongan Elites in the Modern World System Pacific Viewpoint 22(1): 48- 64 13Moore, Clive, 1985. Kanaka: A History of Melanesian Mackay Port Moresby: Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies and the University of Papua New Guinea Press 14Morton, Keith L., 1987. The Atomization of Tongan Society Pacific Studies 10(2): 47- 72 15Munro, Doug and Bedford, Richard, 1980. Historical Background in Simeona Iosia and Sheila Macrae (eds) A Report on the Results of the Census of Population of Tuvalu 1979 Funafuti: Government of Tuvalu 16Pitt, David and Macpherson, Cluny, 1974. Emerging Pluralism: The Samoan Community in New Zealand Auckland: Longman Paul Citing Literature Volume31, Issue1May 1990Pages 63-66 ReferencesRelatedInformation

Weighing Up the Factors: Moral Reasoning and Culture Change in a Samoan Community

The study of moral thought has become an interdisciplinary endeavor, addressed by the fields of theology, philosophy, literature, history, psychology, and anthropology. An anthropological approach to the study of morality relates the individual's moral thought to sociocultural factors that affect people's modes of reasoning (Douglas 1970, 1982; Edwards 1975, 1985, 1987; Geertz 1973; Graves and Graves 1978; Harkness, Edwards, and Super 1981; Kearney 1984; Much and Shweder 1978; Read 1955; Reid 1984, 1988; Shore 1981, 1982; Shweder 1982a, 1984; Shweder and Bourne 1984; Shweder, Mahapatra, and Miller 1987; Shweder and Much 1987). As Geertz (1973) pointed out, the moral domain is one in which the interplay of ethos, the evaluative aspect of culture, and world view, the cognitive mapping of the social world, produces the normative regulation of behavior. In this paper I propose that world view mediates the individual's developmental process with regard to moral thought, and I examine the effects of two contrasting world

Migration, changing gender roles and stress: The Samoan case

The impact of migration and social change on male and female role expectations is examined in an urban Samoan community. Expanding role expectations and role conflicts in the urban context are linked to differential experiences of stress by gender, which are in turn examined with respect to the health outcomes of arterial pressure, a measure of physical health status, and a psychosomatic complaint index.

Anthropology and Epidemiology: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Health and Disease.

Section I: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives.- Introduction: Medical Anthropology and Epidemiology.- Early Work in Anthropology and Epidemiology: From Social Medicine to the Germ Theory, 1840 to 1920.- Anthropology and Epidemiology in the Twentieth Century: A Selective History of Collaborative Projects and Theoretical Affinities, 1920 to 1970.- Section II: Infectious Diseases.- Epidemiological Research on Infectious Disease: Quantitative Rigor or Rigormortis? Insights from Eth-nomedicine.- Ethnicity, Ecology, and Mortality Transitions in Northwestern Thailand.- The AIDS Epidemic in San Francisco: Epidemiological and Anthropological Perspectives.- Section III: Non-Infectious Diseases.- Migration and Hypertension: An Ethnography of Disease Risk in an Urban Samoan Community.- The Meaning of Lumps: A Case Study of the Ambiguities of Risk.- Section IV: Psycho-Social Conditions.- Colonial Stress in the Canadian Arctic: An Ethnography of Young Adults Changing.- Respondent-Identified Reasons for Change and Stability in Alcohol Consumption as a Concomitant of the Aging Process.- Identifying Psychosocial Disorders in Children: On Integrating Epidemiological and Anthropological Understandings.- List of Contributors.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.

To love them and to leave them? A review of a Samoan community and health service research project in New Zealand

The place of Samoan and other Polynesian healing practices and related community projects in New Zealand society has only recently become a subject for study. This paper is an attempt to circumscribe for the people, both Samoan and non-Samoan, with whom I have been working, some of our cross-cultural associations in this field. To do this I have focused on moments in a process which has as many histories and as many futures as there are people participating in it. The interpretation presented here is a chronicle of significant information and events belonging to a 3-year period (1978–1980 inclusive). Behind the choice, to concentrate on describing the process of our dialogue and action rather than the end results—our ‘successes’ past and present—lie some fundamental questions. Can the growing understanding and on-going communication of people involved in community projects be documented so that this process is appreciated as valuable? This work takes a long commitment by researchers, even if they are members of the community project, and questions of practicality are raised. Is there a method of documentation which is acceptable both to the funding institutions that sponsor community health projects and to the people who are engaged in them? Could the present commonly accepted short-term assessment of end results, which I find objectionable, be right? And researchers evaluating community health projects, should they continue to become involved with the people they are studying for short times and then withdraw—to love them and leave them?

Linguistic Relativity and the Diagnosis of Schizophrenia

sounds much closer to English than to either he or it. What this woman was doing is standard procedure for individuals unaccustomed to speaking a particular second language: she was substituting the similar sounds of a word in her native language (that had a similar or related meaning) for a word in the unfamiliar language. I wish I could end this tale happily; but I was never allowed to speak to the patient myself, even though I had arranged for an interpreter from the large Samoan community in San Francisco to come and talk to both the patient and social worker. No one was allowed to see the patient after my conversation with the social worker, even though I sent some of my students in various guises to Highland Hospital. I later found she had been transferred to a psycRiatric ward.

Bereavement in a Samoan community

Bereavement in a Samoan community

The Social Organization of an Urban Samoan Community

The urbanization experience of Samoans in a West Coast metropolitan area provides an unusual example of a non-Western village people who have adapted with relative ease to the demands of urban life. A major factor contributing to their adaptation is the retention of a social system characterized by the traditional units and affective ties of the little community, modified to assist its members with the instrumental functions necessary for urban survival. The chief social units discussed are the extended family and the various Samoan Christian churches. It is suggested that the overlapping bonds deriving from kinship, church, and ethnic-linked occupations are so pervasive as to constitute a functional little community within the city.